


It Could've Been Worse

by JSevick



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Nightmares, but this couple is just too much, could not resist, nothing but fluff, so i'm super rusty, this is my first fanfic in eight years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 21:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4580520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JSevick/pseuds/JSevick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity wakes from a nightmare in Oliver’s arms, but it’s not what he might expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Could've Been Worse

“Felicity… Felicity!”

“Hmm… wha…?” Her eyes squint open in the dark.

“You were having a nightmare,” Oliver says softly, fingertips trailing up her arm.

“Mmhmm,” she murmurs. She doesn’t need to be told; her heart is pounding in her chest, kicks of adrenaline spiking in her veins, but it’s fading fast as his warm hand settles around her jaw. His thumb rests against the galloping pulse in her throat.

“You okay?” The tone of concern in his whisper-soft voice, and the heavy presence of his large body curled around her, both ease some of the last strains of fear out of her, and she’s halfway back to sleep already. But she can also hear the undertones of guilt, his mind no doubt leaping to visions of Slade or Ra’s or, worst of all, Al Sah-him, and of course heaping the blame upon himself for the life they _both_ chose to lead.

With a grumble, she mutters into the pillows, “Dinosaurs.”

“What?”

“Just dinosaurs,” she says, husky with sleep, eyes still closed. “Lots of teeth. Lots of running.”

“Dinosaurs,” he parrots back to her. His voice is flat, tight with amusement.

“I could feel the one’s breath on me. The medium one, like a raptor, but bigger than a raptor, like halfway between, I think my brain made it up—but I saw the big one waiting, and when the medium one pounced towards me I felt its breath but then the big one ate it so that was good… but then the big one turned on me and you woke me up.”

Oliver chuckles, more of just an expelled breath across her chin, and presses a kiss to her nose. His arms—his ridiculous, muscled, haven of _safety_ arms—wrap tightly around her and tug her against his chest.

“I won’t let any dinosaurs eat you, I promise,” he says, his lips never leaving the skin of her forehead. His tone has lightened—though if anyone could still take the blame for a dinosaur nightmare, it would be Oliver. He’d probably start feeling guilty for watching _Jurassic Park_ with her the other night, even though it had been her idea.

She sighs, nestling her nose under his stubbled chin. “You can’t fight dinosaurs, Oliver.”

His arms squeeze her playfully. “Hey, I don’t let anyone eat my girlfriend—except me.” His voice lowers with heat, and she knows she could wake up more and this could go another way, but she’s too sleepy, her limbs heavy, her mind scattered and eyes sore from long hours staring at computer screens. And they have only been asleep a short time since the last round—if he is going to work so hard at tiring her out, he has to let her sleep.

He's aware of that; even with the teasing edge in his voice, the hands stroking up and down her back are gentle and undemanding.

“I know,” she mumbles, though she’s not quite sure it comes out as two distinct words. She snuggles against him, seemingly content to fall into sleep again, but one last thought sparks through her brain. “At least you didn’t have to deal with dinosaurs on the island,” she says as she runs a hand down his side, scars rippling over solid muscle beneath her palm. Then she pauses, hand curled around his waist. “You didn’t, did you?”

She can feel the smile on his lips when he presses a kiss against her hairline, as he settles into sleep again. “No. No dinosaurs.”

“Good,” she breathes. “And hey, now you know it could’ve been worse.”

He kisses her then, fingers threaded through her sleep-tousled hair as his strong hands cradle her head, biceps rigidly caging her in, and she has never felt safer.

Bring on the dinosaurs.

**Author's Note:**

> So I have only been aware of this couple for a few weeks and they already have me writing fanfiction which I haven’t done in YEARS… They are just too much. And I had this dream last night (the dinosaur one), and when I woke up of course I immediately started writing fanfiction in my head, because I am a huge dork. 
> 
> I also had this idea for a sort of-AU where Oliver Queen takes his adorably bubbly nerd girlfriend to Jurassic Park, and because he’s Oliver Queen they get a private tour and a docent and get to go off-track but of couse that doesn’t end well… But like the first half is fluff like applying sunscreen and Felicity packing every possible thing they could need into a backpack (which pays off later) and asking about the processing power of the computers that are sequencing these genomes and not wanting to watch the goat be eaten without even a chance to run and… Yeah. But that seems like a huge thing to tackle, and I am beyond rusty and so if anyone else wants to run with that idea, awesome. :)
> 
> I’m a bit nervous posting this, just because I haven’t written fanfic in so long (and haven’t written anything in a while) and never in this fandom—and full disclosure, I haven’t even seen the whole show (mostly just every Olicity clip over and over because I am trash), so if I got something blatantly wrong please forgive me… but it was cute and I thought, why not? 
> 
> And these notes are almost longer than the story… but if you made it this far, thank you so much for reading!


End file.
